


Adrien Needs Love and Affection

by OverEnthusiastic



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien and Nino being the best bros, Adrien deserves love and affection, Adrigaminette, Aged Up, Alternate Universe - Magic, And mild trauma, Bed Sharing Soulmate AU, Cussing, Humanoid Kwamis, Magic AU, Nino's Parents, Relatively Human Kwamis, Some themes of parental neglect, Soulmate AU, Tags May Change, They're all roughly eighteen, original characters involved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24062914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverEnthusiastic/pseuds/OverEnthusiastic
Summary: Adrien is turning eighteen soon, and he and Nino have a plan to get him out of the house and away from Gabriel. Only Nino's side of town is a lot different than Adrien is used to, not to mention he still hasn't told Marinette and Kagami about them being soulmates, and he won't stay with them long enough to let them find out.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

Adrien finds himself snuggled up with Marinette again, making a sad noise and stroking back her hair. Marinette doesn't even budge, drooling a little on her pillow. She's always such a heavy sleeper. Adrien just sucks in a deep breath and sits up, looking over at her clock to check the time. He lets out the breath and gets up to climb up to Marinette's balcony.

He climbs down the side of the building and heads back home, sneaking back in the house through the service entrance, something he learned he could do, when he started appearing next to Marinette every night. He sneaks back to his room, settling down in his bed and laying back. The soulmagic rarely sends him back to her twice in one night, but he doesn't want to test it. He doesn't sleep very well anymore anyway.

Adrien heads into class, hiding a cup of espresso in his waterbottle, running on fake energy for class. His father was not at breakfast, yet again. Adrien's not even upset by it anymore. He was upset about it when he was fifteen, but it's been almost three years now, and he's gotten used to it at this point. His father is never going to get any better, not matter how much he wishes it would happen.

He settles down next to Nino, the brown skinned boy offering him a gentle smile, before pushing over some breakfast for him.

"Thanks, dude. You're the best." Adrien smiles at him, moving to devour the pastry.

"Of course, bro. You look like you slept terribly again." Nino watches him softly, leaning his head on his hand.

"You're not wrong. I haven't slept well in a while." Adrien says after swallowing a bite of pastry, moving to take another bite, already halfway through it.

"I know. You're almost eighteen though. You can live on my side of town with me then, and you won't have to worry about your father again." Nino reaches out to ruffle his hair, a determined smile on his face.

Adrien looks over at him, his shoulders relaxing, as he nods and munches his pastry, polishing it off, "I can't wait. Father will hate it."

"Your father hates it if you even step slightly outside of his plans for you. He deserves it at this point." Nino huffs, leaning back in his chair and waving awkwardly at Alya and Marinette when they come in. He and Alya had broke up some time during the whole Lila issue a while back, and Nino's still a little upset by it, but he's been one of Marinette's friends for so long though, and Marinette's still friends with Alya, so he's working on being more friendly with her.

Adrien just gives him a worried half smile, more of a wince, because he's still not too happy with Alya either, but he can't exactly blame her for being manipulated by Lila. She manipulated almost everyone, and she was good at it, telling them what they wanted to hear, and giving them light suggestions on things until they trusted her inexplicably. The thought of what she did to him sends a shiver down his spine. He really misses Kagami.

"Anyway, I'm bringing you over to my parent's house on your birthday, if you get the chance to sneak away, so Mama and Baba can go over everything with us, and help give you a run down of living on your own, like they've been doing to me for the past few months." Nino taps his fingers on the table, "They'll help explain how our arrondissement is a little different too, and see if you want to go to Suerste with me, after we graduate here."

Adrien listens to Nino talk, letting out a soft sigh and nodding his head, "I'll make sure to get away, and I'll pack a bag to take with me."

Nino looks over at him, his eyebrows going up for a second, before he nods his head and fiddles with the edge of his tablet, his voice dropping to a whisper, "If you need anything to help change your appearance, we can more than help."

Adrien bites his lip, looking over at Nino, then nodding his head intently, "Yes, please. Thanks, Nino."

Nino watches him softly, then wraps him in a side hug, "Of course, bro. I'd do just about anything for you."

It takes everything Adrien has to not start crying at that.

\---

Adrien wasn't even asleep long this time, he closed his eyes for a moment, and the next time he opened them, here he is, with Marinette, another figure in the bed this time though. He blinks at that, sitting up and looking at the other person.

Her eyes are closed, and she looks so much less put together than normal, but no less breathtaking. Her hair's gotten shorter since last time he saw her, Adrien holding in more tears at the two settled together. He didn't know you could have more than one soulmate.

He reaches out and strokes back Kagami's hair, the olive skinned girl just nestling closer to Marinette. Adrien sucks in a deep breath at that, tears pulling at the corners of his eyes, as he makes a little noise, and moves to escape through the trapdoor, like usual.

He just plops down on his bed, when he gets home, letting himself cry. Man, he really missed Kagami. They'd started dating for a bit there, before Lila wormed her way into his house and started working with his dad, convincing him that Kagami was a bad influence on him, until Gabriel made it nearly impossible for them to hang out even. 

Kagami eventually got upset, especially with all the photo shoots and Lila hanging around. She saw straight through the liar, and when she realized that there was no way she could fix it, she told Adrien that maybe they should wait until they're older to try dating again, so his dad won't continue to do this to them, and hopefully Lila will be gone by then. She wasn't mean about it, just straightforward, like she always is. It doesn't change the fact that it hurt Adrien a lot.

Adrien just sobs into his hands, until he gets tired of crying, heading to the shower and getting ready for the day.

"Oh, thank goodness. You take forever to shower." Plagg's settled on the back of his couch when he gets out, the dark skinned guardian just grinning at him, his unnatural, green cat eyes glittering with amusement.

Adrien just huffs at him, just towel drying his hair today, "What do you want? We haven't heard from Hawkmoth in a year now."

"I just wanted to check on my favorite kitten." Plagg hops off the back of the couch, tucking his hands in his pockets, "Nuroo came back to us, apparently something happened with the moth miraculous, and he finally got separated from his previous keeper. I just wanted to keep you updated. We probably won't need to be out for another century at least."

"What happened with the moth miraculous?" Adrien raises an eyebrow at him, finally taller than the dark haired spirit for once.

"I didn't care enough to ask." Plagg flicks his fingers, giving a big stretch and yawning, looking over his keeper gently, "Anyway, how are things going for you? You're almost eighteen right?"

Adrien pouts at him, then just shakes his head fondly, "Yeah. I turn eighteen next week. Nino's doing something for me for my birthday, and a good portion of my class is graduating early for some reason. We take the baac before winter break."

Plagg nods his head at that, looking around the room, "Do you have any cheese?"

Adrien just rolls his eyes and pulls some from his cabinet, handing it over to him, "Nice to know that habit hasn't changed with the new form."

"Cheese is perfect, and this form isn't new. It's just new to you. You're old enough for me to not have to babysit you now." Plagg takes the cheese from him, unwrapping it and just taking a big bite of it.

Adrien shakes his head at the spirit, "Thanks, Plagg."

Plagg nods his head, his lips curled into a smirk, as he bumps his shoulder, "Always, kitten. I'll come visit you for your birthday, but until then, Tikki's already yelling at me to come back."

Adrien gives him a light smile, waving him off, as he heads back to his plane, settling down in his desk chair and tapping the screen, sighing heavily at the picture of his mom. He has all his pictures with her saved to a flash drive, for when he leaves. He's tempted to print them all off instead, just because he's still worried about his father trying to track him down, when he leaves, and threaten him to come back, because he will.

\---

Adrien looks around the school on the day before his birthday, knowing this is the last day he's going to be here, the last time he'll probably get to see most of his classmates. He's going to create himself a new identity in full after this, maybe dye his hair, definitely change it somehow though.

Marinette heads up to him, her expression a little worried. She's talked to him so much more since after the whole Lila thing, the two becoming pretty good friends. He's been slowly realizing his raging crush on her since, and so he keeps it secret, not wanting his father to come after her if he shows even the slightest bit of interest in her.

"Hey, Marinette. How are you today?" Adrien keeps his smile friendly, watching her come up to him, tapping her fingers together anxiously. She'd stopped wearing her hair in pigtails about a year ago, usually keeping them in twin buns as of late. It looks adorable on her.

"I'm good. I, um, so I just wanted to tell you, and I don't want you to freak out or anything, but you should know, because you were dating… Kagami is my soulmate." Marinette moves her hands as she talks, tapping her foot against the ground a bit, before looking at him with anxious eyes.

Adrien watches her for a moment, before putting a soft model smile on his face, "Oh, that's wonderful. She deserves a lovely girl like you."

Marinette's cheeks color red at that, her eyes getting big, as she reaches up to hold the back of her neck, looking away from him, "Ha, thanks. Kagami's pretty wonderful herself. We're just gonna keep being friends for now, but I just wanted you to know. I didn't want things to be weird or anything with us because of it."

"Of course not. I just want her to be happy, and if you make her happy, then that's even better." Adrien smiles over at her, bumping her shoulder softly, before heading up to the classroom.

Marinette just blushes more at that, making a cute noise, before trailing him up to class.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm gonna actually try to update this one regularly for once, because I'm working on it in between some of my personal projects. So the first few chapters should be up this week, then hopefully I'll stick to a chapter a week posting system.

"Father? I don't see you for dinner very often. What's the occasion?" Adrien looks over at his father, settling down in his chair for dinner.

Gabriel just looks up from his tablet, watching his son with a neutral expression, "Hello, Adrien. I just have a few things to discuss with you turning eighteen and becoming a full adult. We have some new modeling contracts for you to sign tomorrow, and you will be finishing the rest of your schooling in Japan, as an exchange student, before we get you enrolled in one of the most prestigious colleges there, for business courses of course. You will be on the plane leaving at noon tomorrow."

Adrien's eyes widen at that, and he settles his hands down on the table, "What about my current school? I have friends here."

"We've already got everything settled with François Dupont, and you may message your friends your goodbyes. We'll even allow you an hour to video chat them all tonight. This is for the best. Japan has so many opportunities for us to expand the Gabriel brand, and I would like you to make connections with your new classmates. Your teacher says your Japanese has gotten much better, and you'll hopefully gain fluency while you're there." Gabriel doesn't even bat an eye at his son, turning to his tablet.

"Can I at least have two hours of video chat, if you won't let me go see them?" Adrien balls up his fists, trying not to glare at the man.

Gabriel looks up from the tablet, then nods his head, "Two hours and not a minute more."

Adrien nods, as the chef brings out their dinner, "Thank you, Father."

"Dude, that sucks. Your old man is really strict." Nino huffs, on a big video call with him and the rest of their class, all of them pretty upset that he's leaving.

Nino's clearly frustrated, even more so that they can't actually discuss what to do, since Nathalie's supervising them, even though she's half asleep on the couch, a bad day for her chronic illness.

"You'll at least video chat us while you're there, right?" Marinette's voice pops up, her eyes worried.

"I'll try, but I can't be too sure. I'll be in a completely different timezone, and in classes all day." Adrien rubs his cheek in irritation, all the others giving out their, it's okay's, and Mylène saying that at least he could text them updates. Adrien gives her a sad smile at that, not hitting his eyes, "Yeah. I'll try to text you guys as much as I can. I'm going to miss you all so much."

Rose coos at that, full on hugging her tablet, everyone calling out their I'll miss you's as well. Adrien tries not to cry at that, smiling at all of them, and changing the topic, talking to them for a bit longer.

Adrien gets together his bag, gathering the only things he even wants from the house, and a couple wheels of cheese. He tries his door, then scrunches his nose, when he finds it locked, tapping his ring lightly.

"Plagg? Can I get a favor?"

Plagg steps into the room, his eyes lit up with delight, "Are we sneaking out of the house?"

Adrien chuckles at that, nodding his head, "I need to get to Nino's place. Want to go out for one last ride?"

"I mean, do you have some cheese for me?" Plagg wiggles his eyebrows, earning a grin from Adrien.

"I've got two whole wheels with your name on them, and I'll give them to you, once we get there." 

"Well, what are we waiting for then? Say the words." 

Adrien beams at him, holding out his arms, "Plagg, transform me."

Plagg smirks, stepping forwards and phasing into him, transforming the two of them into Chat Noir.

Chat Noir just picks up the bag and opens his window, rolling his eyes at the mass of rosebushes his dad had put under the window a few years back. He extends his baton and heads out for the nearest rooftop, looking back at his childhood home for a moment.

"Goodbye, Father."

_And rest in pieces you stupid shit._ Plagg's voice picks up in the back of his mind, Chat Noir bursting into laughter and taking off for Nino's place.

He climbs in Nino's window, then detransforms and hands Plagg his cheese, Nino looking up from his desk and sighing in relief.

"Oh, thank allah. I was so worried your dad was gonna drug you, or something. Hey, Plagg, dude. Thank you for getting him here safe." Nino moves to his desk, holding out another wheel of cheese to him. He'd found out about Plagg and Adrien being Chat Noir last year, and he's been nothing but supportive. Adrien couldn't ask for a better friend.

Plagg just lights up, gathering all the cheese and grinning at them, "Oh, so much cheese. I'm gonna make some of the others so jealous. I trust you to take care of my kitten, Nino?"

Nino looks over at him, then just grins, mock tipping his hat, since he's not wearing it right now, "Of course. I've got him."

Plagg nods at that, opening one of his cheeses and taking a big bite, before heading back to his plane.

Adrien just sinks to the floor once he leaves, breaking down into tears, "Nino, he was going to send me away."

Nino lets out a little sigh, nodding his head and settling down next to him, wrapping him up in a hug, "But, you got away from him, and it's almost midnight, so he can't mess with you anymore. My parents will help us out. They're still up, since I told them everything that was going on, and we were all expecting you. Do you need a moment, before we go talk to them?"

Adrien nods his head, leaning against Nino and sniffling, "I'm going to miss them all so much."

Nino rubs his arm, letting out a soft sigh, "I know, dude. I know. It really sucks, but you can make friends with some of them again. I know at least half the class is coming with us to Suerste, even if you'll be starting there a lot earlier than the rest of us. I've got some dudes that'll be keeping an eye on you, though. You don't mind staying here with my family and I, until after winter break, do you? It'll look less like we kidnapped you that way."

"I don't mind at all. Your parents are so nice." Adrien rubs his eyes, looking around for a tissue. 

Nino just leans up and grabs one from his nightstand, handing it to Adrien, "Here we go, bro. Are you ready to talk to my parents yet?"

Adrien just nods his head, not feeling like speaking at the moment. He gets up and follows Nino to the livingroom, the older boy leading the way.

"Mama, Baba, Adrien's here."

Zara immediately rises from her chair, looking over at Adrien, her eyes worried, as she moves to wrap him up in a hug, "Oh, thank goodness. We were worried he'd trap you and not let you get away, or worse. Are you doing okay, kiddo?"

Adrien starts crying again at that, Omar making a gentle noise from where he was reading on the couch, "I guess we'll take that as a no. Let's go ahead and sit down you two. We've got a lot to go over. Nino, can you make sure Chris is still asleep."

Nino gives his father a nod, before heading down the hall to check on his little brother.

After Adrien's more settled down, Omar, Zara, and Nino all start explaining a lot of things to him, starting with the magic arrondissements, what magic is, the fact that he has magic, something Nino had to explain how he found out about a little more thoroughly. Adrien just thought the fact that he could see different shimmery outlines on things was due to his rising insomnia problem.

Omar just sits with him and explains his altered magic in more detail, showing him his own altered magic, before Zara explains Suerste and that it's a magic school, and how they're going to get him fully registered as a magic citizen tomorrow, and get him set up through Underage Housing, which is an incredibly bizarre concept to Adrien. 

Magics aren't considered full adults until they turn twenty-five, and go to school until then, but because he's considered a full adult in the non-magic world, he's allowed to leave his father and get set up through Underage Housing, as an underaged adult. 

The whole thing is just super confusing in general for Adrien, and he's too tired to process all of it, saying so after a bit.

Omar and Zara share a look, before just chuckling, Zara reaching out and patting his head, "We'll go over it some more tomorrow then. For now, you two ought to sleep. We've got a lot to do tomorrow."


	3. Chapter 3

So, Adrien's actually pretty cool with this, Omar and Zara having one of their friends over to do a more permanent appearance change, dying his hair a dark brown, that he actually really likes, and changing his eye color to a much deeper green, slightly too unnatural for non-magics, and tweaking the shape of his nose. Tani snorts when he looks up at her and asks if he can have longer hair, nodding her head and helping him alter the length.

"Better?"

Adrien nods at that, thanking her several times over, then trying to put it in a ponytail, Tani making an amused noise, before she moves to help him out.

After that, Omar and Zara take him to a few offices, Adrien just a little sad that Nino had to head to school to deflect suspicion if his father starts snooping around.

They get his name legally changed to Adrianus Lahiffe, Adrian for short, which Zara just cackles at, one of their friends in the Non-Magic Magic Affairs Bureau getting him set up with a new background, a nice woman named June, who is apparently one of Omar's brother's wives. They're setting him up with a protection program of sorts, June taking him into his headspace with her, an incredibly odd experience for him.

His headspace just looks a lot like his room, mixed with the school library, June making a soft noise at that.

"Oh, yours is so minimal. He really did a number on you, didn't he?" June reaches out and strokes his hair, the dark skinned woman looking really worried.

Adrian just shrugs, looking around the space, "This place looks so weird."

June just nods at that, chewing on her lip, as she moves to some books just swathed in dark blue, "Oh, chiquito. Your shelves are pretty bad. You've got so many trauma memories. We can make a very good case for you, but I'm making Zara set you up with a therapist."

Adrian just blinks up at her, "Trauma memories? But my life isn't that bad."

June just taps the book, "You lost your mother, that's a trauma memory in it of itself. A restrictive and neglectful father can cause trauma memories. Trauma memories don't have to be major life threatening events, even if there's a section for that. Trauma memories are just overwhelming memories that caused you a lot of pain, and are brought up very often. You seem to deal with them better than most, but you're still clearly affected by it."

The book displays several memories of Adrian's lost mother, including pictures that he keeps looking at, days where he didn't leave his bed due to it just swimming in his head, thoughts he had from it. Adrian sniffles a bit at that, shaking his head, "Can you please stop?"

June looks back at him, then nods softly, pressing it back into the book, before giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder, "I do have what I need now, so we can leave, if you'd like."

Adrian nods his head at that, closing his eyes and feeling her pull them out of his headspace and back into their bodies. 

June gives him a gentle smile when he opens his eyes, looking up at Omar, "We'll have him in protective services by the end of the day."

Omar nods at that, reaching out to stroke Adrian's hair, "Thanks June. He'll be going to classes with Mona and Rey without Nino for a little while."

June nods at that, getting up and stretching, "I'll tell them to keep an eye out for him. Knowing Rey, he's going to be entirely too excited to make another new friend."

Omar chuckles softly, shaking his head, "He always is."

\---

Adrian's slowly starting to get used to Nino's family, the whole family doting on him, except for Chris, who's just a little confused as to why he's here. He does seem to like him being here though, and he keeps asking him to play video games with him, which Adrian eventually obliges, actually a little excited to hang out with Chris, like he's his older brother. Nino hangs out with them quite often too, when he's not studying for the baac, always happy to do so.

Today's Adrian's first day of classes at Suerste, and he's pretty excited about it, having met Mona and Rey once already. Rey took to him really fast, while Mona was just somewhat interested, not saying much. She mostly just listened to her brother talk.

"Adrian!" Rey bounds over to him, in a skirt today, their face a little rounder somehow. 

They barrel him over with a hug, Adrian blinking, before laughing and hugging them back, "Hey, Rey. Um, what should I be calling you today?"

Rey just grins at him and does a spin, "It's she/her pronouns today. I'm a switch, so it changes a lot, but I won't get offended or anything, if you get the pronouns wrong."

Adrian just gives her a thumbs up at that, "Cool. Where's Mona?"

"Mona's trying to escape her soulmate right now. Cerise is a little questiony, and Mona hates it." Rey chuckles, before lighting up again and waving at someone behind him, "Oh! Gaige, Luiza, Nash! Come meet our new cousin!"

Adrian looks back at them, chuckling when he sees a brown skinned girl in a half shirt and skirt combo batting at a brown skinned boy in slacks and a t-shirt, who's holding a muffin away from her and scrunching his nose, a light-skinned redheaded boy shaking his head in exasperation behind them.

"Give it back! That's the last magdalena, and it's mine!" The girl launches herself at him, the guy nearly falling over, as he struggles to keep it away from her.

"You've had three already, hermana! I've only had one, let me have it!" The brown skinned boy frowns at her, Adrian just noticing how similar they look, both their eyes an unnatural sapphire green.

"I take more energy than you do, and I'm hungry!"

"Halsbien, you two! Just split it or something!" The redheaded boy groans, rubbing his temple with one hand.

"She's already had three!"

"And you stole it out of my hands! It's my magdalena!" The girl has her legs tightly around his waist, reaching out and pulling his arm towards her, trying to take a bite of the muffin.

Adrian blinks at the group, looking over at Rey, who's just looking so amused.

Someone bubbles the muffin, an older boy with darker skin coming over to the two and plucking it from the guy's hands, shaking his head, "You two are eighteen years old, for fuck's sake."

"Akash! Gaige stole my magdalena from my hands!" The girl turns to him, her eyes watery, as she drops to the ground again.

Gaige makes an indignant noise at that, "Luiza's had three already this morning!"

"They've been giving me a headache this whole time." The redheaded boy grumbles.

"Gaige, don't steal things from Luiza's hand. If you want another muffin, just go get another muffin. Luiza, if you guys bought a box to share, then you need to share an equal amount." Akash shakes his head, handing the muffin back to her.

Luiza just takes the muffin and holds it to her, turning to glare at Gaige, "There was other food in the box that he could eat."

Gaige just glares back at her, "There was other food in the box you can eat."

"But magdalenas are my favorite, and you know it." Luiza sticks her tongue out at him, taking a bite of her muffin.

"You two are like five year-olds." The redheaded boy throws up his hands, "I'm so glad you're getting along better now, but holy shit you two."

The both turn and stick their tongues out at him, Adrien chuckling a bit at that.

"Anyway, you guys! This is our new cousin Adrianus. He goes by Adrian though. Adrian, these are some of my friends, Nash, Luiza, and Gaige, and Akash, Luiza and Gaige's older brother." Rey looks between him and the group, beaming at all of them.

Luiza just gives him a light curtsy, still eating her muffin, while Gaige just turns at grins at him, giving him a full bow, "It's wonderful to meet you, Adrian! Are you the new kid we're getting for class?"

"Yeah." Adrian just reaches up and awkwardly rubs the back of his neck.

"That's awesome! I'm Gaige Huang, and I'm our class rep, so if you need anything, then you can come to me. Can I get your contact?" Gaige pulls out his phone, Luiza snorting at him, before looking back at Nash, and offering him a smile. Nash rolls his eyes at her, reaching into the box he's holding and taking out a pastry to eat.

Adrian just looks back at Gaige and nods, getting out his own phone, "I just got a new phone, so I don't know my number yet, give me a second to find it."

"No problem. I can just pull it from your phone and connect it to mine." Gaige hums, the air between the phones changing for a second, before Gaige taps on his phone, Adrian getting a text message and blinking at it, his eyes getting big.

"Oh! That's cool! What magic is that?"

"Tech magic. I'm a dual tech and emotional magic." Gaige grins at him, watching him for a moment, before his eyes soften, "You're new to magic, huh?"

Adrian looks up at him, then nods, reaching up to rub the back of his neck again, "Yeah. I'm an altered magic, but I just found out about it recently."

"That's cool. Rey was a late manifester too." Luiza shrugs, finishing off her muffin and moving to wrap Rey up in a hug, squeaking when Rey hugs her back tightly, "Eeep! Too tight, hermana!"

"Sorry!" Rey lets her go, Luiza chuckling softly and ruffling the light skinned girl's hair.

"It's okay, just watch your strength a bit, sol. You're gonna break me one of these days."

\---

"So, how was your first day?" Nino's settled on the couch next to him, taking an extended break from studying to play this video game with him and Chris.

"It was actually pretty nice. Rey introduced me to everyone in class, and Gaige took me on a tour of campus. I didn't see Mona that much though. Oh, and I got to meet Jay, Elil, and Alano at lunch." Adrian looks back at him, settled on the floor and leaning back against the couch, because he can.

"You got to meet them all on day one. That's awesome. I didn't think Jay was old enough for secondary school." Nino shrugs his shoulders, working on his little hut, Chris insisting that they play minecraft on survival, because it's more hardcore.

"I have no clue how old Jay is. I though he was in Alano and Elil's grade, and they're only a couple years younger than us." Adrian turns back to his screen, heading out to fight some zombies.

"Jay's a year or so younger than the twins. Did you meet Aunt Isa yet? I know she works at the school." Nino sits upright, bolting away from a creeper, "Shoot, it's near my house!"

"I've got it." Adrian moves over to his house, luring the creeper away, before starting to shoot it, "Anyway, no. I haven't met Isa yet. I think she teaches a world cultures class, but I'm pretty sure I'm not signed up for it. Rey was talking about it. She's trying to convince me to come to an optional sneak peek class next week, for Intro to Aerial Manifestation. I guess she, Mona, and Luiza are showing off for it with Isa and another teacher, so maybe I'll meet her then."

"Dude, you should totally sign up for the class. You're such a show off normally, and I know you'd love Aerial Manifestation." Nino grins at the other boy, earning an indignant squeak from him.

"Excuse you! I am not a show off! I'm just naturally this talented." Adrian flicks his hand up against his cheek, Nino bursting into laughter at that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up making this chapter a little long, so I had to split it. Next chapter is just a continuation of this one.

"Welcome to the Intro to Aerial Manifestation interest class!" Prof. Hé calls out to the class, her rainbow colored eyes gleaming. 

Adrian freezes in his spot, when he sees Marinette standing behind her with Rey, Mona, Luiza, and Gaige, his heart giving out a longing thud. He just forces his attention back to Prof. Hé, when he notices Luiza look at him and raise an eyebrow, the dark haired girl leaning over and whispering something to Rey.

"I'm Professor Isa Hé, though most of my students just call me Prof. Hé, and I'll be heading the Intro to Aerial Manifestation course that we'll be starting for the first time here at the school, which is why this course will only last a quarter. We'll be using whoever would like to apply as our guinea pig class. Classes will start on October third and run until the end of the year, and will last an hour and a half long every Thursday starting at fifteen." Prof. Hé clasps her hands together.

"We'll be going over all five competition categories during class, starting with the performance category and ending with the manifestation category, which is why I have these lovely student volunteers up here with me. All five of them are in level three of junior competitions, the highest competition level, and no we won't tell you who they perform as." The others chuckle behind her, Prof. Hé's eyes crinkling at the corners, "They'll be keeping their performances a little easier than they would for competitions. So we're going to get started with the performance category, which Rey is going to show us a basic routine for."

Rey beams at that, giving them a little bow, before heading up to where a ring and a few ribbons have already been set up on the floor from the couple of tightwires they have out for today.

"To start with, performers are allowed to set up their own performance staging using the tight ropes, provided it doesn't take more than seven minutes for level one performers, five minutes for level two, and three minutes for level three. Rey set up her staging ahead of time today. What judges are looking for in the performance category is exactly what it sounds like, your performance. They're looking to see what moves you can pull off, how complicated they are, how well you use your staging, and how well it meshes with your chosen song." Prof. Hé grins at the group, looking back at Rey and holding up her hand, making a circle as she closes it.

Rey drops into her ring with the start of the song, hooking her legs around the bottom of the hoop and letting herself drop to the side, using the momentum to spin her hoop, before extending one leg up and moving her upper body back up to grab onto the ring with one hand, then the other, flipping out of the ring after a rotation, and expertly grabbing onto one of her ribbons as she jumps into them, wrapping up her arms in them, before moving to hold herself up with them, extending her legs above her head.

She drops from that hold, unraveling the ribbons and using them to move to a swing, the ribbons swaying on their own to the music. Rey jumps on the swing, using it to move for a bit, before flipping back into the ring and spinning it so fast it goes horizontal with the end of the song. She snaps her fingers and it stops, the extra energy moving from the ring and into the air, causing the rest of her staging to fly back away from her, Rey beaming proudly from her spot.

The crowd on the balcony claps at that, Prof. Hé shouting out a, thank you, to her, before turning back to the group, her eyes turning a sandy color, "That was a standard performance routine, and as you can see, you don't have to manifest strongly to do Aerial Manifestation. That move that Rey did at the end there is called a signature. Most performers that don't use as many manifestations, if any, will have a specific move as their signature, to set them apart from the other competitors. Those that do manifest tend to have a signature that more matches their namesake, which I'll get into more thoroughly in classes. Gaige is gonna go ahead and show us what a story routine looks like."

Gaige grins at that, holding an arm to his chest and giving a little bow, before taking off for the tightwire, high-fiving Rey as she heads back down to the balcony.

"What we're looking for in a story routine, is the kind of story you tell with your routine. The points we're looking for here are creativity, and actually telling a story, extra points for performance and manifestations." Prof. Hé gives Gaige the same signal she gave Rey, Gaige just grinning from a platform he'd manifested.

He starts manifesting silhouettes walking around him, one silhouette lit up pink off to the side. He starts for the silhouette, moving through the crowd, as the silhouette starts jumping onto other platforms, Gaige back flipping onto the platforms and chasing the silhouette, just for it to vanish, one of the other uncolored silhouettes moving to dance with him. Gaige dances with it for a moment, before letting go of it and hopping up on a platform, hanging off it by his hands, the silhouette now on a platform underneath him, dancing with someone else in blue. 

He lets himself drop, creating a platform underneath him to fall on and do a handspring off of, landing in front of a purple shadow that stumbles a bit, Gaige holding out a hand for them, before starting to move with them, the other platforms and silhouettes disappearing with the end of the song.

Adrian claps with the rest of the group, trying to keep his attention on the performances, even though Marinette's not three meters from him. She gives a little giggle at something Luiza whispers to her, the noise setting his heart in a flutter.

"Thank you, Gaige!" Prof. Hé calls out to him, before turning back to the group, "And that was a typical story performance, it looks like unrequited and new love. As you can note, Gaige chose not to include a signature in his performance, which is not uncommon, even if signatures are more standard. Next up is Mona, who will be showing us a theme performance."

Mona just nods to Prof. Hé, heading out to the tightrope and passing Gaige on the way, Gaige just giving her a smile.

"Theme is set up just a little different from other performances, as the performers are given a theme three months before competitions, and their routine must accurately reflect that theme. Common themes are, fear, anger, love, passion, and joy. The higher level of competitions you are, the more complicated your themes will be. Mona got to choose her own theme for today's performance, and she chose rebirth, which is a very common level two theme. We will go over the levels and what all they entail during classes." Prof. Hé lets Mona have another moment to set up her staging, Mona influencing her plants to grow down from the tightwires.

It looks like she mostly has flowering vines set up, a small tree growing out from one of the back wires, its branches extending out.

Mona just give the same signal Prof. Hé was giving the other two when she's situated, the music starting. Mona starts moving with the music, flipping through the vines and around the tree's roots, the vines starting to flower, as she moves, making sure not crush them. One of the tree branches grows down, shaping itself into a ring that Mona uses to move, before the plants start wilting, Mona moving back to the vines and cupping one of the flowers in her hands, the flower drying up, before falling off the vine and out of her hands.

She flips back into her ring, only to grab onto the sides when it breaks. Mona spins with the broken ring, before a single seed falls from the dying tree branches. Mona catches it, moving to hook her legs around the top of the broken ring, flipping upside down and holding it in her hands. Roots shoot from the seed and wrap around Mona, moving up the broken ring to the dead branches of the old tree, branches twisting around Mona, and growing leaves, the song ending.

Rey and Luiza cheer at Mona, both looking rather proud of her, while Marinette just giggles and claps with the rest of the crowd, Gaige doing the same.

"Thank you very much, Mona!" Prof. Hé calls out to her, turning back to them, "That was an excellent example of theme. If you'll note, Mona used a willow tree, which was what she used for her signature this time. Moat nature magics use specific kinds of plants for signatures. Our next performer will be Marinette, who is showing us an example of an effect routine."

Adrian's eyes immediately follow Marinette, as she bounces up from her spot, waving at the group and rolling her eyes at Luiza giving her a whistle. Marinette seems to catch his eye for a moment, tilting her head at him, before shaking her head and taking off for the tightwire, manifesting little patches of star-like stepping stones out to the floor.


	5. Chapter 5

"What we're looking for in the effect category is the kind of visual effects you can create, which is why it's more oriented towards stronger manifesters. We won't get into this category, or the manifestation category nearly as much as we will the other three, since this is just an intro class." Prof. Hé looks out at Marinette, then gives her the signal to start.

Marinette grins with the start of the music, manifesting what looks like a galaxy around her, transforming the space around her. 

Adrian sucks in a breath at that, enraptured already, as he leans his head on his hands, watching as Marinette starts moving. She flips between the stars, dropping down and hanging onto the rings of a planet, before moving over to a comet that passes by, riding it for a moment.

Adrian watches her dance through her galaxy, the girl more graceful than he's ever seen her before, and she seems just so happy. She does a back flip off a planet similar to the earth, launching through some stardust and landing on a meteor, before the galaxy shrink into her hands, the meteor changing into a patch of grass, Marinette just holding a miniature galaxy in her hands, the air behind her colored sky blue. She throws the galaxy up, changing the air behind her to look like the night sky, Marinette still standing on the grass and looking up at it.

Adrian finds himself wanting to cheer with Luiza, Rey, and Gaige, everyone clapping for her. He chews his lip, reaching up to rub his face. He misses her a lot, even if it's only been a few weeks. The soulmagic hasn't moved him back to her and Kagami since he moved in with Nino, which probably has something to do with the fact that he feels more safe there. He doesn't know what he's going to do when he gets his own room, after he and Nino move out, and they have the potential to be moved to him instead.

"-a beautiful example of an effect routine. And our last performer is Luiza who will be showing us the manifestation category." Prof. Hé's voice cuts into his thoughts, and he tears his eyes away from Marinette to look back at the teacher, "The manifestation category is the most difficult category and requires you to be a strong manifester, or at the least a moderate manifester. We will not spend more than a day on it for this course. What we're looking for in a manifestation routine, is how many moving parts your manifestation has, what kind of scene you can set with it, and what you can do with the manifestation."

She gives the signal for Luiza to start, Luiza dropping from the tightwire, manifesting an entire castle scene underneath her in less than ten seconds, silhouettes moving through it, that are just chatting with each out. Luiza dances through the garden, flipping up onto a gazebo, before manifesting a ring to move with, the scene following her up to the tower of the castle. Luiza flips into the tower window and startles the silhouettes in there, the walls falling away to show Luiza drop through the stairwell, catching herself with a banner and spinning with it.

She moves through the dinning area, flipping onto a chandelier, before using it to dive out a window and back into the garden, manifesting a shield in her arms and throwing it up with the end of the song.

Prof. Hé shouts out a thank you to her, before clasping her hands together and smiling at the crowd, "Again, the manifestation category is the hardest category, and even the routine Luiza just showed us is a little more difficult than anything but a level three manifestation routine. We won't spend a lot of time on it. Does anyone have any questions?"

The entire balcony lights with questions at that, Adrian just tuning them out and watching Marinette start chatting with Rey, before the two turn to Luiza when she comes over. Luiza looks over at him after a moment, tilting her head at him, when she sees that he's watching them.

Adrian blinks a little at that, his cheeks heating with embarrassment. He really wants to go talk to them, but it'd probably be best to avoid Marinette for a bit, lest she figure him out. 

Luiza's lips curl up in a smirk at that, and she leans over to whisper to Rey, the girl's eyes getting big, as she pouts at looks over at Adrian, waving at him, and gesturing him over.

Adrian makes a noise at that, shaking his head at her. 

Rey scrunches her nose at him, eyes flickering to Prof. Hé, who's starting to finish up with questions. The minute Prof. Hé lets them go, Rey darts into the crowd and grabs Adrian's arm, half pulling him off the ground.

Adrian frowns at her, jumping up, "Ow, Rey! Please don't pull my arm out of its socket."

"Sorry! Luiza said you looked left out over here, and you should never feel left out! Come meet our friend, Marinette! She's a Cheng, and she's such a sweetie. Oh! And I need to introduce you to Mami! She's the one that's been heading the class all day." Rey beams back at him, enveloping him in a hug, before continuing to drag him over the the others, "Marinette! Come meet our new cousin, Adrianus! He goes by Adrian though."

Marinette's eyes crinkle in amusement at that, looking over at him with a soft chuckle, "It's nice to meet you, Adrian. What side of the family are you from?"

Adrian blinks at that, then opens his mouth, then just closes it and thinks for a minute, "Um, Rey. I forget which of your parents it is that Omar is related to."

"Baba. He's from Baba's side of the family. He's Nino's new brother, Nette. I'm sure Nino's talked about him" Rey looks in between the two, just beaming. She very much earns the nickname the others give her.

"Speaking of Nino, he still hasn't returned that headset I let him borrow last week." Mona grumbles, looking over at Adrian, "He didn't lose them this time, did he?"

Adrian gives off an awkward chuckle at that, shaking his head, "No. They're still on his desk."

"Good." Mona scrunches her nose.

"Nino has talked about you a bit. He was pretty excited to get another brother." Marinette smiles over at him, clasping her hands together, "You're also an altered magic, right?"

"Yeah. I haven't had much practice with it, but I'm getting a lot better already." Adrian reaches up and rubs the back of his neck, Gaige moving over and ruffling his hair.

Luiza just sneaks over to his side, leaning an arm up on his shoulder, "You were looking pretty excited about our routines. Are you gonna be signing up for Tía Isa's class?"

Adrian thinks about it for a second, before nodding his head, "Actually, yeah. It looks like a lot of fun."

"We could teach you too!" Rey lights right up again, moving to shake his shoulder, "You could join one of our teams!"

Mona snorts at that, shaking her head at her sister, "If you're interested in joining a team that is, since this is still your first introduction to the sport and all."

Rey makes a noise at that, letting go of him.

Adrian just reaches up and runs a hand through his hair, "I mean, maybe? I just want to try it out."

"That's perfectly fine too." Marinette offers him an encouraging smile, Adrian trying to calm his heart.

Luiza looks in between the two, then just gives a little smirk and moves to stretch out, "Rey, has Adrian been introduced to Tía yet?" 

"No!" Rey squeaks, grabbing his arm again, and making for Prof. Hé, "Mami!"

Adrian just laughs and salutes to the others, before turning around and following Rey to her mom.


End file.
